Walking Dead: Au Revoir Walkers

This programme contains scenes of horror….that’s what I like to hear.

Series 2 finally finished last week, only 13 shows but lasted months because of those super long and unnecessary American season breaks! Gutted I miss episode 8 because of my Sky box turned into a zombie that particular week and wouldn’t record any FX shows. I couldn’t even download it (legally) or buy it on iTunes, but I couldn’t have missed much as I didn’t notice any of the characters missing, so if any of the main characters became ‘walker meat’ I didn’t miss them.

I think the special effects in WD are brilliant but I do find the killing of walkers comical, probably because no matter how good the make-up and special effects are its obvious they aren’t real…or are they?  Every Monday to Friday on my walk to work in Boredville City Centre, I too become a walker heading to the office in a zombie state.  I pass fellow ‘rush hour’ walkers staring down at the pavement or looking blankly though each other being controlled by the noise coming out of our white ear phones – no smiles no eye contact. Now and again I see a smiling human in between the zombies, so not everyone hates their job, but I think there is a bit of zombie in us all especially before 9am.

Just an average view on my way to work

Back to the show (spoiler alert if you haven’t watched series 2) firstly RIP old man Dale, I don’t know how the group will get along without killing each other as you was the conscience of the group. Oh that’s right they couldn’t and they started the fighting and killing each other with Rick killing Shane in the next show.  Of course Rick is my favourite W.D. character. I think he is a lot like Jack from Lost, the leader and the hero with his ‘die alone or live together’ type of speeches.  Never watched Teachers but I liked Andrew Lincoln small part in l’Arnacoeur' (Heartbreaker). My second is Daryl the cool kick ass dude who doesn’t say much but he sorts the shit out. I’m happy Shane kicked the bucket he was beginning to do my head in with his psycho behaviour and as for Carl the little brat should be walker dinner, but unlikely that will ever happen as the show already bumped off the only other child Sophia at the end of the first half of the series.

As for my travel bucket list, a few weeks isolated in the Georgia countryside does look and sounds quietly good…Walker free of course.

I want one!

Hawaii - TV/Travel Bucket List

'Savour the experience' is what the Hilton Hotels advert says before every Hawaii 5 – 0 episode on Sky 1 HD and Hawaii is an experience that I would love to savour, as the islands are TV heaven with Hawaii 5- 0 and Lost and movie heaven with The Descendants,Just go with it, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and 50 1^st dates. OK I will rephrase that to a little bit of film heaven with the Descendants. Maybe the movie making formula is if the script is average, let’s make in a beautiful country so people forget about the story and admire the backdrop instead.

Lost was like a relationship, you have high hopes for it and then after seven years of sticking with it, it lets you down. Seven years of watching, then re watching, analysing, then re analysing – an amazing TV show but tres disappointing ending. Were they all dead all along? Who was Jacob? How the hell did Ben move the island? What was the black smoke? Just a few unanswered questions still going around in my head. I suggest Lost – The Movie or a Ben and Hurley spin off show to answer everyone’s’ questions. I know I’m going to repeat myself thought-out this blog but seven years of my life was wasted.

I’m too young to watch the original 5-0 back in 70s but I did remember the theme tune and ‘Book em Dano’ so maybe I watched a few re-runs back in the 80s. The Hawaii 5 – 0 21^st century version is brilliant and the beautiful backdrop is an added bonus. The double act of Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan as Steve McGarrett and Danny ‘Dano’ Williams can be very funny with their ‘put-downs’ to each other and of course kicking ass and looking hot always helps me make the decision to watch a TV show. It’s a little bit of blue skies, sunshine and escapism before a grey and cold week when I watch 5-0 on a Sunday night.

So Hilton, the Seychelles Labriz looks amazing, I would prefer to stay at London Paddington for the Olympics and I could do with a few weeks at Los Cabos, Mexico after a stressful week at work. But regarding my TV Travel Bucket List, I want to savour the experience at the Hilton Waikiki Beach Hawaii, revisit a classic at the Hilton Arc de Triomphe Paris (any excuse to go back to France) and as for escaping the ordinary, The Beverly Hilton, La La Land Los Angeles sounds interesting.. Now that’s four plugs Hilton (now 5), please take the hint.

Working aboard – what did I miss?

Before the dust settled on my passport I spent 6 summers working aboard. No SKY TV not even Freeview and in some apartments I lived it no TV at all.  All there was to watch (if I was ‘lucky’) was Spanish/Italian Jeremy Kyle style shows and the news.  The only show I could understand was Friends, as I knew what was going to be said after watching them over and over again. So it didn’t matter what language it was in, as ‘¿cómo te va/come stai/comment tu fais’ was just as funny. 

I did spend a summer working in Florida and after being promised cable TV, ‘lots of channels’ was what my then boss lied to me, but ended up with 20 – 10 of them were news or shopping channels. The only shows on offer were Jerry Springer and Roseanne.  However the positive points of my time in the good old US of A - I watched my first Bones episodes and have good memories of Sunday nights watching Rock of Love on VH1 (Series 1), it took over my life and then the lives of my friends who didn’t even know who Bret Michaels was.

It wasn’t all bad living in the sun, having a busy social life and spending my day off on the beach nursing a hangover with my friends or Monsieur X (it was the shocking low pay and terrible exchange rate which brought me home). Of course I have the memories and the photos on Facebook, but even watching TV can make me think back to the good old days.

My TV Travel memories.

I did look away from the TV sometimes on my travels.

IBIZA 

ER Box sets 1 and 2, passed around the office, scratched beyond repair especially the Storm Drain episode. In return I borrowed Shameless Series 1 and 2 – back when it was good.

PUNTA CANA - Dominican Republic

Armed with a portable DVD Player, living in a empty apartment in between two brothels I watched ER Series 3, a few episodes of Prison Break, thinking this looks good and never watched it since and weirdly Johnny English as it is became Monsieur X’s favourite film that year.

SALOU, Spain

A dodgy DVD copy of Desperate Housewives Series 1 where the sound was so low I had to have put my laptop near my ears to try and listen.  And Lost Series 1 and 2, already watched Series 1 before but watched it again with 'Lost Virgin' Monsieur X and then watched Series 2 together rationing the episodes to two a night so that we wouldn’t run out of things to watch.

ORLANDO,USA

Rock of Love – see above and Roseanne when my workmates christened me with my new name.

CARIBBEAN

Hiding in my Barbados hotel room, away from the angry guests watching the end of Lost Series 3. Catching up on the Desperate Housewives in a hotel room in St Kitts and the Rock of Love Final in Antigua.

SICILY, Italy

Beautiful view from my apartment balcony, but living on 2 euros a hour and with the flat/work mate from hell, hiding in my room was my only option. I watched 24 Series 1 within 3 days and became addicted to the power of Bauer. Spent most of my office time bidding for Series 2 and 3.  

Being away from my family, cats, home and just as importantly my Sky box, there are a lot of programme I missed out on and now that I home and bored I have started to catch up on past shows, such as Cold Case (I’m up to series 3 now) and The Wire (Series 1). Maybe if I ever have a spare month or two I might try the Sopranos and Dexter.

My Mount Eta balcony view every morning

Mad Dogs - Te Amo Ibiza

Every time I watch Max Beesley, I always think about the Take That concerts back in the early 1990’s, seeing him banging away on his bongos.  So with a very small Take That connection and Philip Glenister – the coolest British dude in TV land Mad Dogs was obviously going to be good.  I didn’t think ‘the Dogs’ could come back for a second series. I thought the boys would live happy ever after back home with their stolen Euros.  So very excited when the second series started, more excited when it was set on my favourite Island Ibiza (even thou most of the drama is filmed in Majorca). 

Oh I so miss Ibiza .Three summers on the white island were brilliant, made new friends, fell in love, damaged my liver and aged about 10 years due to drinking too much, lack of sleep and lack of sunscreen.  I lived and worked in Ibiza Town but spent most of my time in the West End, San Antonio and Playa den Bossa. My West End memories included drunk dancing with my friends most nights (my Scottish pals made me do it), meeting Monsieur X by actually falling into his arms (too much Blue WKD that night) and my Playa Den Bossa memories consisted of drunk singing in Murphys Bar (whisky in a jar-o is my personal favourite) and usually dealing with the after effects of the drink by walking it off at 4am (bar to home around 3-4 km would take me an hour –ish) or spending my day off nursing my headache on the beach.  This was the Summer of 2003 and 2004, I was there for Summer 2005 but by then I had enough of the long hours, crap pay and paying 5€ for a ‘cheap’ alternative to Smirnoff ice.

It’s still my favourite destination and a few years ago I went back for Radio 1 weekend, it had changed – new Bus Station, few new shops and bars, but when I returned to the same San An Heavy Metal Bar, I basically lived in for 3 years it wasn’t the same. It was the same staff, decoration, music but not the same vibe.  Then on the 2^nd August 2009 (4 years to the day I met Monsieur X in there) I finally realised I had grown up a bit and moved on. Or maybe it was because I was only there for 3 nights and could only party for 2 of them that might have had something to do with my decision that I had become a little more mature.

Te Amo Ibiza – I’ll be back